25 Fascinating Facts About America

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Some call it The Land of the Free, others call it ‘Mericuh. No matter what you call it though, you should take a short break from lighting fireworks and grilling hamburgers to enjoy these 25 fascinating facts about America. And as we celebrate the birth of a nation make sure to thank any veterans that you know. Happy Fourth of July!

 

25 

A Chilly Commute

Alaska is the state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work.

 

24 

Conspiracy Theory

Twenty-seven percent of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

 

23 

Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue

The American flag’s official colors are “Old Glory Red,” “White,” and “Old Glory Blue.”

 

22

A Grisly Realization

Even though the grizzly bear is California’s official state animal, none have been seen there since 1922.

 

21

Cereal City

More breakfast cereal is made in Battle Creek, Michigan than in any other city worldwide.

 

20

Crowning Glory

The seven rays on the crown of the Statue of Liberty represent the seven continents. Each measures up to 9 feet in length and weighs as much as 150 pounds.

 

19

Outnumbered

Montana has three times as many cows as it does people.

 

18

High Morale

The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

 

17

Creeper

The American one-dollar bill contains several hidden images, including a spider in the upper right-hand corner.

 

16

Coincidence?

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826 – 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

 

15

We Speak American

Although English is the most commonly spoken language in the United States, no official national language exists.

 

14

Let Freedom Ring… Or Not

The Liberty Bell was last rung on George Washington’s Birthday in 1846. It received its fatal crack a few hours later.

 

13

Island Time

In addition to its mainland, Louisiana consists of 2,482 islands that cover nearly 1.3 million acres.

 

12

Pilgrim Pride

About 35 million Americans share DNA with at least one of the 102 pilgrims who arrived aboard the Mayflower in 1620.

 

11

Where The Streets Are Paved With Gold

US Highway 550 in Colorado became known as Million Dollar Highway because its roadbed was paved with low-grade gold ore.

 

10

Cast Off The Shackles

Broken shackles lie at the feet of the Statue of Liberty, signifying freedom from oppression and tyranny.

 

9

Feeling Crowded?

The state of Alaska is 429 times larger than the state of Rhode Island, but Rhode Island has a significantly larger population.

 

8

Oops!

Although Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., it is technically 47th because Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit it to the Union until 1953.

 

7

On Shaky Ground

About 500,000 detectable seismic tremors occur in California each year.

 

6

Twists and Turns

Snake Alley, the most crooked street in the world, can be found in Burlington, Iowa.

 

5

Positively Presidential

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson were all born in Virginia, making it the birthplace of more Presidents than any other state.

 

4

Home Sweet Home

Venus Fly Traps can only be found natively in the Carolinas and nowhere else in the world.

 

3

Such Great Heights

New Jersey is home to the world’s highest roller coaster.

 

2

BOMBarded

The Japanese sent bombs aboard balloons to the United States during World War II. Dozens of them actually landed, causing some damage. One of them even killed an Oregon family in 1944. The scary part is that there might be more lying around undiscovered!

 

1

And The Rockets’ Red Glare

The British deployed the first rockets in America during their attack against Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. Francis Scott Key witnessed the attack and immortalized it in a song he titled “The Star-Spangled Banner.” That song is now the national anthem of the United States.

 

25 Fascinating Facts About America

10 Fun Facts – South Korea

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 1. Fruit is a luxury item. Fruit in Korea is already absurdly expensive, but especially due to the high levels of rain as of late, it’s costing Koreans even more than normal. (What is one of the most expensive fruits? WATERMELON – at about 30,000 won, which is equal to about $30.00 in Canada.)
2. Koreans eat SPAM like it’s going out of style. Why is it so popular? Well, during the war, soldiers were supplied with a lot of canned foods, so they ended up creating something we know now as 부대찌개 (Military Stew), which has water and spices as broth, with all of the various canned foods and vegetables boiled together to make a hearty feast. The population ended up picking up on the SPAM after this creation and starting adding it to other soups and recipes. It ended up becoming somewhat of a staple, and is now essential in most homes. Expect to see a lot of SPAM gift sets during important holidays, too. It’s a strange sight, but a common one in Korea.
3. Koreans LOVE 고구마 (sweet potato) and sweet potato-flavoured things. Just to give you an idea, here are a few varities of sweet potato snacks, desserts and main courses. Deep fried sweet potato, sweet potato cake, sweet potato crackers, sweet potato chips, sweet potato bread, sweet potato latte, sweet potato salad, sweet potato pizza. You get the idea? Don’t get me wrong, though, I’m not knocking it. I actually happen to love all of the Korean sweet potato creations… except the latte – that’s just gross.
4. Tipping is not required in Korea. If you tip a server or the owner of a restaurant, they are more likely to chase you down the street with your change, than to think that you left it behind for them as a token of your appreciation.
5. Stores, shops and services are open considerably later than in North America. Most stores are open until at least 10:30 or 11:00 pm. Restaurants, Bars, Cafes and Street Food vendors stay open even later. Koreans LOVE drinking until all hours of the night, so there is ALWAYS a place to grab a bite to eat if you’re craving something delicious at 3 or 4 am.
6. Drinking in Public is one-hundred percent legal. You’re allowed to sit in the park, by the river, on a University campus and have a few drinks and some snacks with friends. Don’t think you’re being a rebel, though, a lot of other people indulge in this, as well.
7. Public Transit is clean, fast and extremely affordable. In Korea, you have the option to take the subway, a bus or even the KTX train to help you arrive to your destination in a quick, timely manner. At about 1000 won per ride ($1.00 Canadian), it’s common to see most people taking advantage of the cost-efficient, organized public transit system in South Korea.
8. Most homes in Korea are equipped with heated floors. An ondol, in Korean traditional architecture, is underfloor heating which uses direct heat transfer from wood smoke to the underside of a thick masonry floor. The more modern versions of ondol floors are heated by circulating hot water from water heaters, or an electrical heating system of dielectric heating or induction heating.
9. The number “4″ is extremely unlucky. For this reason, if you’re giving someone a gift, be sure it is not in a multiple of 4. Also, most buildings in Korea do not have a 4th floor.
10. Avoid using red ink. Writing someone’s name in red ink basically means they’re going to die, or that they’re already dead. You should also avoid writing a note or letter in red ink, as it does not send a friendly message to the recipient of said note.

10 Fun Facts – South Korea

74 Interesting Facts About China

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1. The modern word “China” most likely derives from the name of the Qin (pronounced “chin”) dynasty. First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (260-210 B.C.) of the Qin dynasty first unified China in 221 B.C., beginning an Imperial period which would last until A.D. 1912.
2. China is often considered the longest continuous civilization, with some historians marking 6000 B.C. as the dawn of Chinese civilization. It also has the world’s longest continuously used written language.
3. China is the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada, and the U.S.). It has an area of 3,719,275 square miles (slightly smaller than the U.S.) and its borders with other countries total more than 117,445 miles. Approximately 5,000 islands lie off the Chinese coast.
4. One in every five people in the world is Chinese. China’s population is estimated to reach a whopping 1,338,612,968 by July 2009. China’s population is four times that of the United States.
5. Fortune cookies are not a traditional Chinese custom. They were invented in 1920 by a worker in the Key Heong Noodle Factory in San Francisco.
6. China is also known as the “Flowery Kingdom” and many of the fruits and flowers (such as the orange and orchid) are now grown all over the world.

Invented in China, toilet paper was initially only for emperors

7. Toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300s. It was for emperors only.
8. The Chinese invented paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.
9. The Chinese invented kites (“paper birds” or “Aeolian harps”) about 3,000 years ago. They were used to frighten the enemies in battle, and Marco Polo (1254-1324) noted that kites were also used to predict the success of a voyage. It was considered bad luck to purposely let a kite go.
10. Cricket fighting is a popular amusement in China. Many Chinese children keep crickets as pets.
11. Despite its size, all of China is in one time zone.
12. Many historians believe soccer originated in China around 1000 B.C.
13. Ping-pong is one of the most popular games in China, but it was not invented in China. It originated in Britain, where it is called table tennis.

Viewed as a status symbol, stamp collecting is China’s number one hobby

14. The number one hobby in China is stamp collecting.
15. Giant Pandas (“bear cat”) date back two to three million years. The early Chinese emperors kept pandas to ward off evil spirits and natural disasters. Pandas also were considered symbols of might and bravery.
16. White, rather than black, is the Chinese color for mourning and funerals.
17. Though Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is credited with designing the first parachute, Chinese alchemists successfully used man-carrying tethered kites by the fourth century A.D. Parachutes were not used safely and effectively in Europe until the late 1700s.
18. The custom of binding feet (euphemistically called “golden lilies”) began among female entertainers and members of the Chinese court during the Song dynasty (A.D. 960-1279). Tightly wrapped bandages gradually broke the arch of the foot and caused the woman's toes and heel to grow inward toward one another. Her leg muscles would also atrophy and become very thin. Bound feet were seen as highly sexual.
19. Historians speculate that as the Chinese population grew, people had to conserve cooking fuel by chopping food into small pieces so that it could cook faster. These bite-sized foods eliminated the need for knives and, hence, chopsticks were invented.
20. In A.D. 130, Zhang Heng, an astronomer and literary scholar, invented the first instrument for monitoring earthquakes. The machine could detect and indicate the direction of an earthquake.

The Chinese invented ice cream by packing a milk mixture and rice into snow

21. China invented ice cream, and Marco Polo is rumored to have taken the recipe (along with the recipe for noodles) back with him to Europe.
22. A civil servant named Su Song built the first mechanical clock between A.D 1088 and 1092. It could tell the time of day and also track the constellations so that accurate horoscopes could be determined.
23. On September 27, 2008, Zhai Zhigang made the first spacewalk by a Chinese astronaut.
24. The Chinese were the first to invent the waterwheel to harness water in A.D. 31—1,200 years before the Europeans. China was also the first country in the world to use an iron plow. Europe didn’t begin using the iron plow until the seventeenth century.
25. The name of China’s capital has changed over the centuries. At one time or another it has been known as Yanjing, Dadu, and Beiping. Peking or “Beijing means “Northern Capital.” Beijing is the officially sanctioned pinyin spelling based on the Mandarin dialect. Beijing is the second largest city after Shanghai.
26. It was customary for wealthy men and women in the late empire to grow the nails of their little fingers extremely long as a sign of their rank. They often wore decorative gold and silver nail guards to protect their nails.^c
27. By the fourth century B.C., the Chinese were drilling for natural gas and using it as a heat source, preceding Western natural gas drilling by about 2,300 years.^m
28. By the second century B.C., the Chinese discovered that blood circulated throughout the body and that the heart pumped the blood. In Europe, circulation wasn’t discovered until the early seventeenth century by William Harvey (1578-1657).
29. The Chinese were using the decimal system as early as the fourteenth century B.C., nearly 2,300 years before the first known use of the system in European mathematics. The Chinese were also the first to use a place for zero.
30. The crossbow was invented and first used by the Chinese. They were also the first in the world to use chemical and gas weapons, 2,000 years before gas was used in Europe during WWI.
31. The Three Gorges Hydroelectric Dam spans the Yangtze River and is the largest dam in the world. It is also the most controversial dam in the world because it has been plagued by corruption, human rights violations, technological difficulties, and has caused dramatic environmental changes.

Tea was supposedly discovered when a tea leaf fell into a Chinese emperor’s boiling water

32. According to popular legend, tea was discovered by the Chinese emperor Shennong in 2737 B.C. when a tea leaf fell into his boiling water. The Chinese consider tea to be a necessity of life.ⁱ
33. Martial arts are practiced throughout China and were largely developed from ancient farming and hunting methods.
34. The most important holiday in China is the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year. Chinese traditionally believe that every person turns one year older on the New Year and, thus, that day is considered to be everyone’s birthday.
35. Chinese is spoken by 92% of China’s population. There are at least seven major families of the Chinese language, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Hakka, Gan, Xiang, and Min.
36. Red symbolizes happiness for the Chinese and is commonly used at Chinese festivals and other happy occasions such as birthdays and weddings.
37. In ancient China, the lotus was seen as a symbol of purity and was sacred to both the Buddhists and Daoists. The peony (“King of Flowers”) symbolized spring, the chrysanthemum symbolized long life, and the narcissus was thought to bring good luck.

Anyone caught smuggling the secrets of silk making out of ancient China were put to death

38. The Chinese have made silk since at least 3,000 B.C. The Romans knew China as “Serica,” which means “Land of Silk.” The Chinese fiercely guarded the secrets of silk making, and anyone caught smuggling silkworm eggs or cocoons outside of China was put to death.
39. According to a Chinese legend, silk was discovered in 3000 B.C. by Lady Xi Ling Sui, wife of the Emperor Huang Di. When a silk worm cocoon accidentally dropped into her hot tea, fine threads from the cocoon unraveled in the hot water and silk was born.
40. The oldest piece of paper in the world was found in China and dates back to the second or first century B.C. Paper was so durable, it was sometimes used for clothing and even light body armor.
41. The Chinese were the first in the world to use stirrups in the third century A.D.
42. China’s “one child” policy has contributed to female infanticide and has created a significant gender imbalance. There are currently 32 million more boys than girls in China. In the future, tens of millions of men will be unable to find wives, prompting some scholars to suggest that this imbalance could lead to a threat to world security.
43. The first known species of Homo erectus, the Peking Man, was found in China and lived between 300,000-550,000 years ago. It is thought that he knew how to manipulate fire.
44. During the first half the twentieth century, Shanghai was the only port in the world to accept Jews fleeing the Holocaust without an entry visa.
45. Chinese mathematics evolved independently of Greek mathematics and is consequently of great interest to historians of mathematics.
46. Originating as far back as 250 B.C., Chinese lanterns were an important symbol of long life. Lanterns were once symbols of a family’s wealth, and the richest families had lanterns so large, it required several people with poles to hoist them into place.
47. In the Tang dynasty, anyone with an education was expected to greet as well as say goodbye to another person in poetic verse composed on the spot.
48. In 1974, a group of farmers digging for a well in the Shaanxi province uncovered some bits of very old pottery. They discovered the tomb of Qin (259-210 B.C.) the first emperor who united China. The tomb contained thousands of amazing life-sized soldiers, horses, and chariots.

The Grand Canal of China is the world’s longest canal

49. China’s Grand Canal is the world’s oldest and longest canal at 1,114 miles (1,795 km) long with 24 locks and around 60 bridges.
50. The bat is a traditional good luck symbol that is frequently depicted in designs for porcelain, textiles, and other crafts.
51. The bicycle was introduced into China around 1891 by two American travelers named Allen and Sachtleben. The bicycle is now the primary transportation for millions of Chinese. The last Qing emperor (Puyi) rode a bicycle around the Forbidden City in Beijing. China is currently the leading bicycle manufacturer.
52. The Boxer Rebellion between 1898 and 1901 in northern China was against Christian missionaries, foreign diplomats, and technology by a secret group called the “Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists” (Yihequan or I-ho-ch’uan) so named because its members practiced weaponless martial arts as well as secret rituals. Westerns called it “shadow boxing” and the members “Boxers.”
53. Suspension bridges were invented in China in 25 B.C, 1,800 years before such bridges were known in the West.
54. The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize was Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) for her novels about China, most notably The Good Earth (1931). Amy Tan (1952-) is a best-selling Chinese-American author of The Joy Luck Club.
55. The Chinese word for civilization (wen) is pronounced the same as the word for script, pattern, or calligraphy. In fact, calligraphy was thought to reveal the calligrapher’s moral and spiritual self-cultivation as a type of “heart print.”
56. The carp is a symbol of strength and perseverance. The scales and whiskers of the fish make it resemble a dragon, the greatest symbol of power in China. Fish in general play a large role in Chinese culture and the words for “fish” and “abundance” are pronounced the same in Chinese (yu).

In some regions of ancient China, pigtails were indicative of girl’s marital status

57. In some parts of China, “pigtails” were associated with a girl’s marital status. A young girl would wear two pigtails, and when she married, she would wear just one. This may have contributed to the Western view that pigtails are associated with children and young girls.
58. In ancient China, mirrors were believed to protect their owners from evil, making hidden spirits visible and revealing the secrets of the future. A person who had been scared by a ghost could be healed by looking in the mirror. Mirrors were often hung on the ceilings of burial chambers.
59. The longest river in China is the 3,494-mile Yangtze (Changjian) River and the 2,903-mile-long Yellow (Huanghe) River.
60. The Chinese developed a theory of three levels of heaven—Heaven, Earth, and man—which has been influential in landscape painting and flower arrangements.
61. The horse most likely originated in Central Asia and became very important in China. A horse is considered to be associated with the masculine symbol, yang, and with the element of fire. A person born in the Year of the Horse is considered cheerful, independent, clever, talkative, quick to anger, and able to handle money.
62. Because the cicada (katydid) has the longest life span of any insect (up to 17 years) and sheds its skin, it has long been a symbol of regeneration and rebirth for the Chinese. In ancient China, the Chinese would place jade cicadas in the mouths of the dead because they were thought to slow down the decay process and speed up the rebirth in another world.
63. Concubinage has been practiced throughout Chinese history, primarily by wealthy men who could afford it. Chinese emperors had large harems with hundreds of concubines.
64. The phoenix is the most important bird in Chinese legend and represents the feminine power of the empress. The graceful crane, which is a symbol of long life, is the second most important bird in Chinese legend. Ducks are also important symbols and represent happiness and marital faithfulness.
65. The Cultural Revolution (the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution) from1966-1976 resulted in severe famine, thousands of deaths, and the erosion of thousands of acres of farmland.
66. While the dragon is typically seen as an evil creature in Western culture, it holds first place among the four greatest creatures in Chinese mythology, including the phoenix, tiger, and tortoise. It is typically associated with the emperor.
67. The highest mountain in the world (29,028 feet) is named in the honor the Englishman Sir George Everest who was the first surveyor of India. The Chinese call Mount Everest Qomolangma, which means “Mother Goddess of the Earth.”

The position of the stars on the Chinese flag represents the people’s unity under Communism

68. China’s national flag was adopted in September 1949 and first flown in Tiananmen Square (the world’s largest public gathering place) on October 1, 1949, the day the People’s Republic of China was formed. The red in the flag symbolizes revolution. The large star symbolizes communism and the little stars represent the Chinese people. The position of the stars represents the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party.
69. China has the world’s oldest calendar. This lunar calendar originated in 2600 B.C. and has 12 zodiac signs. It takes 60 years to complete.
70. The number of birth defects in China continues to rise. Environmentalist and officials blame China’s severe pollution.
71. The consumption of mushrooms was recorded in Chinese historical documents more than 3,000 years ago. In 1996, China produced 600,000 tons of mushrooms, making it the world’s leading producer, and it has 60% of the world’s mushroom varieties.
72. In 2007, dog food and toothpaste products made in China were recalled because they contained poisonous ingredients. In July, China’s head of the State Food and Drug Administration was found to have accepted bribes from pharmaceutical companies. He was executed.
73. Famous Chinese and Chinese-American actors include Jackie Chan (Hong Kong), Chow Yun Fat (Hong Kong), Bruce Lee (San Francisco), Jet Li (Beijing), Zhang Ziyi (Beijing), and Lucy Lui (New York).
74. The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were the most expensive games in history.^b While the 2004 Athens Games were estimated to cost around $15 billion, the Beijing Games were estimated to cost a whopping $40 billion.

74 Interesting Facts About China

Interesting Facts about Australia Unique & Interesting Aussie Facts

[postlink]https://yohanespratama.blogspot.com/2013/01/interesting-facts-about-australia.html[/postlink]The name Australia comes from the Latin Australis which means "of the South" Legends of "Terra Australis Incognita" an "unknown land of the south" date back to Roman times.
Australia is the biggest island and the smallest continent in the world.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, the driest is Antarctica

With an average of 330 metres Australia is the lowest continent in the world.
The Australian Snowy Mountains receive more snowfall in a year than the Swiss Alps.
Australia is the only continent without an active volcano.
The only land locked state or territory in Australia is the Australian Capital Territory.
It is thought that Aboriginals have called Australia home for between 40,000 and 80,000 years.
It is estimated that at the time of British settlement there was about 300,000 Aboriginal people who spoke around 250 languages.
British settlers aboard the 11 ships of the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay in 1788 but moved north to Port Jackson (Sydney Cove) a few days later when they found the Botany Bay site unsuitable. They arrived at Port Jackson on the 26th January 1788 (now Australia Day).
The number of convicts transported to Australia was about 162,000; they were transported in 806 ships.
About 98-99% of the convicts sent here were from England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland but some were sent from other British colonies like Canada and India, while others came from New Zealand, Hong Kong the Caribbean and other countries.
A lot of soldiers were also transported here for crimes like mutiny and desertion.
The Transportation of British convicts to Australia ended in 1868.
Australian are generally law abiding people but one of our greatest legends is Ned Kelly, a bushranger, law breaker, killer and leader of the notorious Kelly gang of the late 1800's; you can read more about Ned and his gang on our Ned Kelly page.
Unusual and interesting facts about Australia include Australia's only armed rebellion, the "Eureka Stockade" took place in the Ballarat Goldfields in 1854. The goldfield workers (known as 'diggers') were opposed to the government miners' licences. The rebellion became a significant event in the reforming of unfair laws, the developing of democracy in Australia, and the formation of the Australian identity and a fundamental principle of Aussie 'mateship'. The Anzac soldiers of World War 1 went on to adopt the term 'diggers' and our soldiers have been known as 'diggers' since.
Burke and Wills were the first white explorers to cross Australia from South to North. They left Melbourne in August 1860 and reached the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland in February 1861. They both perished near Cooper's Creek on the return journey.

Another of the interesting facts about Australia is these days there are about 115 people in gaol (jail) in Australia per 100,000 of population. In the USA it is about 715, Russia is about 585, New Zealand is about 160, Japan is about 54 and Canada is about the same as Australia at 116.
Women were given the right to vote in Australia in 1902.
The first female Member of Parliament in Australia was Edith Cowan who was elected to the Western Australia Legislative Assembly in 1921.
Neville Bonner became Australia's first Aboriginal senator in 1971.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932 and is the widest steel arch bridge in the world.

The design for the Sydney Opera House was chosen after the New South Wales Government conducted a competition in the late 1950's. Danish Architect Jorn Utzon's vision was the winning design. Unfortuanetely in 1966 Jorn Utzon resigned from the project because of disagreements with the Government. The building was completed in 1973 and Queen Elizabeth II officially opened it in that year. Jorn Utzon died in 2008 without ever returning to Sydney to see in person the amazing Opera House he designed.
One of the unusual and interesting facts about Australia is about the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared while going for a swim at Cheviot Beach Victoria on the 17th December 1967. His disappearance has remained a mystery all these years.
Gough Whitlam is the only Australian Prime Minister to be dismissed from office. He was dismissed as Prime Minister by the then Governor General, Sir John Kerr in 1975.
The Honey Suckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra broadcast the pictures of man's first steps on the moon to the rest of the world in 1969.
United States architect Walter Burley Griffin won the competition in 1912 to design Australia's capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory .
Interesting facts about Australia include the longest straight stretches of road, railway track and the longest fence in the world.
The longest section of straight railway track in the world at 478 kilometres crosses The Nullarbor Plain ( South Australia to Western Australia).
The longest straight section of road at 146 kilometres is also on the Nullarbor Plains.
The longest fence in the world is known as The Dingo Fence, Wild Dog Fence or Border Fence depending on which state you are in.

Map from Wikipedia under
GNU Free Documentation License The fence is approximately 5,400 kilometres long starting at Jimbour in Queensland and continuing on to the Great Australian Bight in South Australia.
My father was a Boundary Rider on the New South Wales/Queensland section of the fence at Camerons Corner when I was a kid.
The largest cattle station in the world is Anna Creek Station in South Australia at over 34,000 square kilometres. It is 8 times bigger than the biggest ranch in Texas, USA and bigger than the country of Belgium.
The population density in Australia is generally calculated in square kilometres per person, not people per square kilometre as it is in other countries.
Australia changed to the metric system of measurement from 1970 onwards. Before the changeover to the metric system Australia used imperial units of measurement that were inherited from the British. The imperial system was phased out over the years following 1970 up until about 1988.
In converting kilometres to miles the conversion goes approximately like this; 1 kilometre = 0.62 of a mile, 10 kilometres = 6.21 miles, 25 kilometres = 15.53, 50 kilometres = 31.07 miles, 100 kilometres = 62.14 miles and so on.
Another one of the interesting facts about Australia is Australia has one of the lowest population densities in the world with an average of three people per square kilometre. The world average on land only is about 45 per square kilometre.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

The Melbourne Cup is a horse race that was first run in 1861 and is still held every year on the first Tuesday in November. It is dubbed "the race that stops a nation".... The state of Victoria gets a public holiday for it and now there's talk about the rest of us having one too because pretty much wherever you are in Oz when that race runs your looking at a television or listening to the radio to ride your horse home with the jockey!
Australians spend the most money on gambling in comparison to any other country in the world. Australia has twenty percent of the poker machines in the world
Quite a few of the interesting facts about Australia has to do with our unique and sometimes deadly wildlife.
The Kangaroo and the Emu were chosen to feature on the Australian Coat of Arms because they are incapable of walking backwards and therefore symbolise a nation moving forward.
Australia is home to six of the top ten deadliest snakes in the world.
The Australian Fierce Snake which is found around Haddons corner (this is where South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory meet) is the most poisonous snake in the world; the venom from 1 bite is enough to kill about 100 people! But despite this it has never killed anyone probably because it lives in such an isolated region.
There are about 350 species of termites, 1,500 species of spider, 6,000 species of flies and 4,000 species of ants in Australia.

Image from Wikipedia under
GNU Free Documentation License

The Sydney Funnel-web spider is considered the deadliest spider in the world.
The stonefish is the most poisonous fish in the world and lives mainly above the tropic of Capricorn off the coast of Australia.
The Box Jellyfish is considered the world's most venomous marine creature and have killed more people in Australia than stonefish, sharks and crocodiles combined.
The largest number of wild dromedary (they have the one hump) camels in the world are found in Australia.
The Australian platypus and echidna are the only mammals (monotremes) to lay eggs.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

The last Thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) died in 1936 at the zoo in the capital city of Hobart, Tasmania.
Australia's tropical north or the top end is home to the world's largest saltwater crocodile.

Interesting Facts about Australia Unique & Interesting Aussie Facts

Mengapa Susunan Keyboard Tidak Berurutan ?

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Pernahkah Anda bertanya mengapa susunan huruf dalam keyboard mesin ketik, komputer, hingga ponsel berupa QWERTYUIO? Mengapa tidak dibuat berurutan seperti ABCDEFGHIJ?

Keyboard diciptakan tahun 1860an oleh Sholes dan Dunsmore. Awalnya mereka membuatnya berurutan sesuai abjad. Namun, lambat laun seiring dengan meningkatnya kemampuan (kebiasaan) user, kecepatan mengetik menjadi lebih cepat padahal mekanisme mesin saat itu masih sangat sederhana. Akibatnya, (baris) tombol tertentu menjadi sering macet dan menghambat pekerjaan.

Berdasar pengalaman mereka, akhirnya disusunlah keyboard yang sengaja dipersulit dan dibuat tidak efisien agar keyboard tidak mudah jammed. Desain mesin ketik itu kemudian dijual ke Remington untuk diproduksi secara massal tahun 1873. Seiring berjalannya waktu, teknologi berkembang pesat dan masalah tombol keyboard yang sering macet sudah teratasi dengan desain mekanik yang lebih baik. Sejumlah desain keyboard alternatif juga muncul di pasaran. Salah satu yang cukup populer adalah DVORAK Simplified Keyboard (DSK) yang dibuat oleh August Dvorak tahun 1936. Desain itu diklaim merupakan desain yang lebih efisien, cepat, dan egronomis.

Tetapi mungkin karena terlambat, akhirnya DVORAK harus tunduk karena dominasi QWERTY yang sudah terjadi pada organisasi-organisasi dunia saat itu dan mereka tidak mau menanggung resiko rush apabila mengganti ke susunan keyboard DVORAK.

Satu-satunya pengakuan adalah datang dari ANSI (American National Standard Institute) yang menyetujui susunan keyboard DVORAK sebagai versi alternatif di sekitar Tahun 1970. Susunan keyboard lainnya yang masih perkembangan dari susunan QWERTY adalah QWERTZ yang dipakai di negara seperti Hungaria, Jerman, Swiss, dll. Dan AZERTY oleh negara Prancis dan Belgia.

QWERTY sebenarnya punya banyak kelemahan seperti membuat tangan kiri Anda overload terutama ketika menulis dalam bahasa Inggris (hal serupa dirasakan ketika menulis dalam bahasa Indonesia). QWERTY juga membuat kelingking Anda overload. Penelitian menunjukkan bahwa distribusi huruf tidak merata sehingga jari Anda harus menyeberang dari baris ke baris. Bila dihitung jari tukang ketik tipikal akan berjalan lebih dari 20 mil per hari dibandingkan dengan DVORAK yang hanya 1 mil.

Sayangnya, orang terlanjur ogah berpaling dari desain QWERTY kendati desain tersebut bukan merupakan desain yang terbaik. Sekalipun teknologi sudah bisa mengatasi problem tombol yang nge-jam, orang tetap bertahan dengan desain QWERTY. Bukannya beralih ke desain lain yang lebih superior. Bahkan QWERTY malah dinobatkan menjadi standar internasional di tahun 1966.

Hal yang sama juga terjadi di Microsoft Windows. Kita tentu tahu bahwa Windows bukanlah sistem operasi terbaik, entah itu dari segi keamanan, kemudahan, kinerja, sampai soal keindahan. Namun, karena penetrasi pasar Windows sudah begitu deras, orang mulai terbiasa menggunakan Windows dan sistem operasi tersebut menjadi terstandardisasi.

Apakah tidak ada yang lebih baik dari Windows? Tentu saja ada. Namun orang perlu berpikir beberapa kali sebelum berpaling dari standar tersebut. Mereka harus menghadapi barrier seperti faktor biaya, isu kompatibilitas, proses pembelajaran, faktor waktu, dan masih banyak lagi. Akibatnya jumlah mereka yang setia jauh lebih besar daripada yang murtad. Inilah yang menjadikan Windows atau QWERTY kemudian menjadi standar, kendati mereka bukan yang terbaik.

Dalam dunia ilmiah, fenomena ini dijelaskan sebagai konsep path dependency dan network externality. Intinya, inovasi tidak menghasilkan outcome yang out of the blue, tetapi merupakan perkembangan yang bisa diprediksi dari yang sudah-sudah. Selain itu, value dari inovasi tersebut akan makin tinggi bila digunakan oleh makin banyak orang. Pada tahap tertentu, inovasi tersebut akan menjadi standar yang digunakan oleh umum.

Mengapa Susunan Keyboard Tidak Berurutan ?

Beberapa Fakta Menarik Tentang Perancis

[postlink]https://yohanespratama.blogspot.com/2013/01/beberapa-fakta-menarik-tentang-perancis_28.html[/postlink]

Perancis merupakan salah satu tempat wisata yang banyak di kunjungi oleh wisatawan baik lokal, maupun internasional. Banyak tempat-tempat menarik untuk di kunjungi disana, seperti Menara Eiffel, Katedral Notre Dame, dan Louvre yang merupakan seni arsitektur dunia.
Banyak hal penting lahir di Perancis, legenda sepakbola Zinedine Zidan juga lahir di Perancis. Masih ada banyak hal-hal menarik muncul di Perancis. Namun ada beberapa fakta menarik dari Perancis, yang perlu Anda ketahui.

1. Meski hanya seukuran Texas, Perancis memiliki tujuh pegunungan dan lima sistem sungai besar.


2. Perancis merupakan salah satu negara terbesar di Eropa Barat, Spanyol, Italia, Swiss, Jerman, Belgia, Luksemburg, Andorra dan Monaco berbagi batasnya.


3. Perancis adalah rumah bagi 29 Dunia UNESCO Situs Warisan seperti Mont St Michel Abbey, Istana Versailles, dan Katedral Chartres.


4. Perancis juga disebut sebagai L’Hexagone, yang berarti segi enam, karena bentuk geometris negara.


5. Ada sekitar 6 juta pengunjung setiap tahunnya, yang datang untuk mulai mengubah pandangan mereka Menara Eiffel.


6. Orang Prancis suka keju, meskipun secara tradisional ada sekitar 300 sampai 400 jenis keju Prancis. Bahkan, sebenarnya ada lebih dari 1000 jenis yang berbeda tersedia di pasar Prancis.


7. Anggur Prancis yang sangat populer di seluruh dunia. Negara ini adalah salah satu negara penghasil anggur terbesar di dunia. Ada 17 berbeda anggur-daerah penghasil seperti Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Loire dan Provence yang melanjutkan tradisi pembuatan anggur di Perancis.


8. Fakta lucu tentang Perancis adalah bahwa bir dianggap sebagai minuman mewah disimpan untuk acara-acara khusus, sedangkan anggur lebih murah hingga di jadikan hampir di setiap makanan.


9. Tour de Prancis, merupakan perlombaan sepeda paling terkenal di dunia adalah perlombaan sepeda tahunan Perancis, di mana pengendara sepeda mencakup lebih dari 2100 mil dalam 23 hari.


10. Patung Liberty, salah satu struktur yang paling dikenal luas dari AS, konon dibuat di Perancis. Ketika AS sedang merayakan ulang tahun seabadnya pada tahun 1886.


11. Perancis memiliki pajak kekayaan tertinggi, dibandingkan negara lain di Eropa.


12. Hari April Mop diyakini berasal di Perancis, tahun 1564, ketika negara mulai mengikuti Kalender Gregorian.


13. Fakta lain yang menarik adalah bahwa didalam bahasa Perancis terdapat sejumlah kata yang merupakan nama dari seseorang. seperti, ‘chauvinisme’ kata ini diyakini berasal dari Nicola Chauvin, seorang tentara dalam pasukan Napoleon itu yang kesetiaannya kepada kaisar adalah legendaris. Kata ’sadisme’ berasal dari nama Marquis de Sade, seorang bangsawan Prancis yang memimpin kehidupan jangak dan menulis novel sadis.


14. Perancis memiliki museum trebesar, yang di namakan Museum Louvre, salah satu museum seni terbesar di dunia.


15. Perancis adalah tempat seni gothic dan tempat lahirnya gaya Baroque. Ini adalah alasan mengapa ada banyak katedral dan bangunan yang contoh-contoh seni gothic disana.


16. Masakan Perancis trbukti memang enak, bahkan terkenal hingga kepenjuru dunia.

Perancis adalah negara luar biasa, begitu banyak hal yang dapat menarik orang untuk kesana. Demi kelancaran komunikasi, bahasa Perancis juga mulai di pelajari di banyak tempat termasuk Indonesia. Banyak orang

Beberapa Fakta Menarik Tentang Perancis

Print Download PDF Report Reader Embed The Global Information Technology Report 2012

[postlink]https://yohanespratama.blogspot.com/2013/01/print-download-pdf-report-reader-embed.html[/postlink]Over the past decade, The Global Information Technology Report series, has become the most comprehensive and respected international assessment of the preparedness of economies to leverage the networked economy. This research provides a unique platform for public-private dialogue on best policies and for determining what actions will further national ICT readiness and innovation potential.
Through the evolved methodological framework of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), The Global Information Technology Report 2012 measures the extent to which 142 economies take advantage of ICT and other new technologies to increase their growth and well-being. This year, Sweden tops the rankings, followed by Singapore and Finland.
Under the theme Living in a Hyperconnected World, the report features expert contributions that explore the causes and consequences of living in an environment where the Internet is accessible and immediate, where people and businesses can communicate instantly, and where machines are interconnected.

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